Don Cheadle stars in the true-life story of Paul Rusesabagina, a hotel manager who housed over a thousand Tutsis refugees during their struggle against the Hutu militia in Rwanda.

If you get the DVD, watch the commentary by the real Paul Rusesabagina. You can't watch this movie and not feel ashamed of your own country for allowing this to happen.

Ten years ago some of the worst atrocities in the history of mankind took place in the country of Rwanda--and in an era of high-speed communication and round the clock news, the events went almost unnoticed by the rest of the world. In only three months, one million people were brutally murdered. In the face of these unspeakable actions, inspired by his love for his family, an ordinary man summons extraordinary courage to save the lives of over a thousand helpless refugees, by granting them shelter in the hotel he manages.

Rwanda 1994. The genocide of the Hutus and the Tutsis sadly commenced. The Hutu militia broke the peace of the country as they started killing any Tutsis in their sight as they called them "cockroaches". This all goes back to when Belgium took the country and sorted out the Rwandan people by shades of colour, nose size and more as it is briefly explained at the beginning of the film.

Hotel Rwanda however does not focus on the graphicness of the wars or the humanity that occurred. It focuses on the true-life story of Paul Rusesabagina and his amazing, heroic struggle. Don Cheadle plays Paul Rusesabagina magnificently as a hotel manager who housed over 1000 Tutsis in the Hotel Des Milles Collines. When all hell broke loose on Rwandan soil, he was there to shelter people in need.

Hotel Rwanda is not only an amazingly done drama but is also educational. It shows the real life events with all the details showing how France, England, Canada, and the U.N helped during the disaster. Nick Nolte plays Colonel Oliver, a Canadian soldier from the U.N who is there at the beginning of the film to help with the peace agreement. Later on, him and other Canadian soldiers are relied to help Paul and the rest of the people during the wars. His character is roughly based on the Canadian war hero Romeo Dallaire who wrote his award winning book, Shaking Hands with the Devil. Nick Nolte's performance is fabulous as he brings Colonel Oliver to life.

Sophie Okonedo superbly plays Tatiana, Paul's wife as she gives a stunning performance. She truly did a magnificent job with her stellar, dramatic talent revealed from this film. Joaquin Phoenix gives a gratifying, exceptional performance as an American cameraman there to visually capture the wars on film.

The real story here is Don Cheadle. With his absolutely extraordinary role, he carries the film on his shoulders. Definitely an astonishing, breathtaking performance, which is one of the best of the year. Don Cheadle's performance is so moving, emotional and so remarkable that he is at his absolute best ever.

The film's flaws are hardly noticed. During the intro, it has the documentary feel and seems hard to get into but after only 5 minutes, you get inside Rwanda and live the strong story of survival and heroic, epic events. Also, from a film like this, I expected more inspirational speeches from Paul Rusesabagina, but his actions and his emotions displayed are more than enough to compensate.

The film's cinematography and editing are well down. The direction Terry George brings to the screen is a calm but strong feel that sternly keeps you in the film as there is no place in the film without a small slight of suspense or tension. Even at some parts of this film, the constant, building tension is relieved with some nice jokes that fit right in. Terry George and his partner Keir Pearson cleverly do this as they beautifully bring their screenplay to life. One thing I loved about this film was during the most emotional times, the songs with the African children singers added to an already perfect atmosphere of sadness or emotional struggle. It was truly beautiful when these songs played as we watched the actions of Paul and his wife at the same time.

Overall, Hotel Rwanda is a truly moving, stunning and inspirational masterpiece. The acting is some of the best this year and Terry George does a superb direction job. As for Oscars, Don Cheadle got a nomination for this role and I'm truly proud for saying that. Even more so for Sophie Okonedo as she truly did a magnificent job for a supporting role. I strongly recommend that all should view this masterpiece as it educates everyone on the disasters that occurred back in '94. If you truly believe and have faith, the extraordinary can be accomplished and Paul Rusesabagina proved this to us

Well we've just seen it with Liewen and ... THANKS RawHide to have started a topic about this great movie.

Lazur had also told me lots of good about this movie and I've been not at all disapointed and even, greatly surprised

I agree with all your enthousiastic comment about Hotel Rwanda and especially the amazing performance of Don Cheadle.

Indeed the movie does greatly prevent to show us the "graphical part of war" to stay in the emotion and the close one while we see Paul Rusesabagina having to deal sometimes between with horrible choice like saving his own family and running away or helping people but then putting in danger not just himself but all his closes.

The transition to the war is so sudden and so realisitic we are caught in the events like the hero is.

Indeed the music is also greatly contributing to the atmosphere (plus I love the music ).

Great movie that really brings out a major occurrence in history that seemingly was hidden by our material obsession with life. Props to Don of course for playing such a great role. I just rewatched the movie this month... definitely added to my best movies list.